Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Have you noticed on social media that many authors use words
with the # symbol in them? Wondered why? Here's the reason.

What Are Hashtags

Hashtags are words which denote topics of interest. By placing
the symbol # in front of a word, it becomes a tiny search program on Twitter (or
other sites using the system).

Hashtags are important because many people on Twitter only use
hashtags. They logon, bring up their saved hashtags, and follow, like, and respond
on those. I follow #Thranduil #Hobbit #Loki #TheFlash #Arrow #AgentsofSHIELD #RLFblog
#MFRWauthor -- and don't see much else. I just added #StarWars though. I'll be all
over that. So if you tweet something with no hashtag, I'm unlikely to see it.

Are hashtags necessary in a blog title? No. However, when people
share your title on Twitter or Facebook, the hashtag will become part of the message.

If the blog is linked to Triberr, it can be vital. Most of the
posts going out do not have them, and it means they are going to be seen by a limited
number of people. Namely, only those who use Twitter by actually reading posts of
certain people, or if they happen to catch your post as it zooms by in the feed.
By the time 20 tweets load, another 60 are waiting. When you refresh, the feed can
jump right past them. I don't bother with the feed. I might glimpse it now and then,
but I spend serious time on the hashtags. They are what interest me. I can save
hashtags in my search menu and bring them up at will.

On Tuesday nights, I watch Flash, Agents of SHIELD, Limitless.
It's three hours of glorious fun for a geek like me. On Mondays I watch Supergirl.
Wednesday s I see Arrow, and Thursday it's Big Bang Theory. During those shows,
I'm on Twitter, RTing and liking tweets with the hashtags of my fave shows. I've
gained followers that way, but I do it because I love the shows and enjoy the interaction
during the program. Commercials are when everyone posts, so it's a flurry of fun.

There's no way to keep up with all that unless you use hashtags.
Give it serious thought.

Mentioning Guests

Do you host guest authors on your blog? If so, why not use their
twitter name instead of or in addition to their name? When your post is shared on
Twitter, they will get mentions and that will expand their reach. I do that on Romance Lives Forever blog,
and it gets guests about 50-75 mentions per visit for each person. That's a huge
reach. I also do it on my own blog, using hashtags that target my reading audience.
For me, that's often #scifi.

If you have tips for making your titles work well, please
share it in the comments.

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Kayelle Allen is a bestselling, award-winning author. Her unstoppable
heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers,
futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

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Marketing for Romance Writers

MFRW Marketing Blog is the blog home of the Marketing for Romance Writers Yahoo! Group. We created the blog for our members. ALL authors, published or not, in fiction or not, in ALL genres, are welcome. We discuss advancing our careers, brainstorm ideas, get feedback, and find others interested in promo. This blog is intended to be an information hub for writers. Here, we share our writing tips, marketing advice, workshops and other info to encourage the success of our members.